Parents all over the world use YouTube for its entertainment and educational content for their children. Although there is a dedicated YouTube Kids app, that is reportedly screened for inappropriate content, we still see many videos of children acting badly or inappropriately for their age. Are parents who are depending on their children to become YouTube stars abusing their children (and ours)?
How Do Child YouTubers Get So Famous? And Why?
It is relatively easy to start up a YouTube channel if you know how to optimize your channel for search engines using the right keywords. In fact, many YouTube channels opt to get YouTube likes by purchasing them online during the first year of running a new channel. Because YouTube is not managed by humans but by an algorithm based on machine learning, there is bound to be some way that people are able to get around the algorithm. By fully knowing their way around YouTube’s algorithm, parents can manipulate the algorithm to favor their children’s content regardless of the quality or educational value of the content. All they need to know if that the toddlers will tap their videos, and the ad-revenue will come rolling into their bank accounts.
Children (especially toddlers) are attracted to bright colors, repetitive sounds and certain movements.
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These are all methods that children’s TV show producers have used for years to capture the attention of children. Using the same principles, people can easily create YouTube channels with a target audience aged below three.
Exhausted Parents
Raising toddlers takes a lot of energy out of parents. While understandable, it is unfortunate that many parents use screen time as their only respite from an exhausting day of activities and cleaning up after a toddler. Because YouTube is user-friendly (even for a toddler), many kids click on whatever videos that are recommended to them, given that they are bright and colorful enough. This further increases the popularity of low-quality content on YouTube.
The Problem with Kids on YouTube
There have been numerous reports of content created on YouTube with children’s characters portrayed with adult or other inappropriate content. YouTube has since taken care of that scandal by applying harsher filters on its Kids portal.
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However, what about content that is innocent but encourages bad behavior?
Many parents are forcing their children to play on camera to create YouTube content. Note that this content has little to no educational value for a toddler – it is purely entertainment.
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But we all know that children learn from actions not words. If they see a child (of their age or slightly older) on a video, gorging themselves on sugary treats; will they be convinced by their parents that too much candy is bad for you?
I understand that parenting is not the responsibility of YouTube, or the parents of those kids creating videos. But how can a parent keep their child completely offline in this day and age without turning their home into some kind of dictatorship?
Child YouTubers: How Will They Grow Up?
Watch an interview with a child star like Macaulay Culkin or the Olsen twins in their adulthood, and they will surely be telling you about the psychological disadvantage of fame at that age. Children are shaped by the world around them, and if these YouTubers realize they are the breadwinners of the house, and that they can bring in large sums of money, have whatever they want – how will they mature into adulthood. Society as a whole is at a disadvantage when parents turn their children into money-making machines and give them no sense of childhood.
Bad Behavior
Additionally, if the children are behaving badly on camera, imagine what their behavior is like when the recording stops? I do not believe that child YouTubers can grow up to well-adjusted responsible adults, nor do I believe the content they provide is beneficial to anyone. Just as child celebrities of the past rebelled against their highly successful lives by getting into progressively more trouble, the child celebrities of YouTube may follow in their footsteps. There is no sense in arguing with history.
If you have a child, reconsider how much screen time they are allowed and more importantly, the content they watch. For those who feel that screen time is inevitable, curating their content is the best approach to keep your child safe from bad influences.
Read More: Can anyone become a YouTuber?